We Can't Blame "Our Kid's Friends" for this one!

Look what we woke up to! It's been years since we've had lovin' like this and back then we had our teenage kids to go clean it up!

It was a really good job, very artistic too.

Julie's Baby Shower

Last Saturday was Julie's baby shower given by sweet Aunt Jan and a dear friend Marsha Clawson. It was a beautiful shower and Julie definately felt the love. Everything that both Jan and Marsha do is done so nicely, but this one was great. Everything from darling center pieces to fantastic food all making for wonderful memories. I love these ladies, they are two of my dearest friends. Aunt Ann, Grandma Wilson, Jenny, Brandi and Chelcie Wright helped with the shower too.

Her Nursery is done up in a Baby Jungle Animal theme so the shower was that too.
Aunt Jan makes the cutest "diaper cakes" as center pieces, sorry that this picture doesn't really do it justice, it was darling.

Here's a much better view of it.

Here is the blanket that Kylie made for her gift to Julie and the baby.

Here Julie has opened and is trying out one of the burp rags that Ema made for her.
We are getting so excited for this new little member of our family to join us. I think she finally feels like she has all the things she needs to have to welcome him to their home and life.

Sewing Lessons

So, this is Kylie, she's my second grand daughter and is 10. She has been very anxious to spend time with me so we can work on one of her talents, sewing. She's done a few projects with her other grandma and at Primary Activity day, but has been wanting to show me what she's learned. Since I've been sewing for Julie's baby, I had something that she could make for the baby shower that was coming up.

This picture was taken at the baby shower last Saturday.

Here is the project that she put together for her newest baby boy cousin who will be joining us very soon. It's just a little "Lovie blanket" I'm sure he'll really love it, especially because Kylie made it for him.

Here we are putting it together, and she's learning to watch the pressure foot instead of the needle.
Guiding the fabric and she was working the foot peddle.
This is my first sewing machine, purchased over 35 years ago. It's a good ol' friend and has been a great machine but is defiantly on it's last leg. The foot peddle has been broken and repaired many times first with hot glue, then super glue and tape, but it still works. I can't find a replacement one either. Now the bobbin winder has stopped working. I probably would have just replaced it but it has one built in stitch that I just love and use all the time. Some old friends are just impossible to really replace.
Here's Ema, she's 13 1/2 now. She has been working on her sewing skills for some time now. In Young Women, her first 10 hour project is learning how to sew. The first few hours of the project was done at Christmas time. She made pillow cases for Dane, Ella, Abby and herself. She's getting good at it too. In fact the sewing machine that Kylie was using is Ema's.
I guess I'm a serious seamstress, (or maybe I'm just a sewing machine collector) these are my other machine choices.
Grandma Jeanie's Viking machine by the wall, which I am trying out to see if I want to buy that kind. Then there's my serger, which I don't know how to use to it's fullest potential, and Ema's sewing machine. I need to figure out which kind I want to buy so they can have theirs back.
Ema is almost finished with her 10 hour project, she made 4 burp rags for Julie's baby shower and will finish up by making some drawstring pajamas for herself and her sisters.

New Accommodations at Our House

This post is mostly for Greg and Jessica's benefit, so please bare with me. In the past few years when they came to visit they were given Greg's old bedroom which was very crowded. Since Julie and Dustin have struck out on their own and moved to their own place, and since we had the painters here anyway . . . we made use of them. So from now on when the "Utah Wilson's" come to visit they will have much better arrangements. No longer will our house guest have to stay in the "garage bedroom"! That's now the work out room/play room.

We even have a bed for Adam and Abby when she's here and needs a nap. Brandi's big on naps. Wade was here this morning and we put him in the crib and he really didn't like it, he's not a crib baby at all.

Here's the room that was Dusty's office, now a lonely bedroom again. But it's going to be my sewing room again too. That's the desk waiting to be set up again.

This can be Dylan's room when he's here!

My Friend

My friend in the kitchen, there's not been much cooking going on in there, lately.

They assure me that it's almost done. Then we will only have one last bedroom to do, the first part of November. Oh, did I say, Julie and Dusty are moving too? I know, so sad! Not far either, only Costa Meas. They need this, it will be good and fun for them, and they need to be on their own. Gene and I will have to get re-acquainted,

Here's The Mess

A very find drywall dust is covering everything

We're not doing anything to this wall only the ceiling above, thus we didn't need to unload and move the shelves. Oh man I hate to think of what that would have entailed.

Paint station

Dining room with all the furniture. Now my dilemma, how do I rearrange it all??? When you come to my house you never know what you'll find, I get board easily.

We're Moving Along, but still have a big mess!

I didn't take any pictures of the mess this time, only the part that looks good. I'm very pleased with the way it is coming along. It looks so fresh and clean, and the big mess has been worth it. But I'm affraid I'll be dusting until Christmas time!

All three of the pictures are of the ceiling in the living room. All of our furniture is stacked in the dining room right now. I think the living room is done but the only painter here right now is spanish speaking. He's the only one working here this morning so I'm not sure of the plan.

This is above the fireplace, it looks really different. Gene wants me to tell him to paint this area the tan color that you see to the right, but I don't speak spanish.

Here is Gene, talking on the phone to Greg who requested these pictures. Remember the valance above the windows? We're not putting it back. I love the clean look. It's gonna be a big change, I have de-cluttered, by taking all of the pictures down, of course that was necessary for the painting. It looks good, I knew that I had gone over board with the pictures so I'm not sure how many are going back up, if any.

More to come.

I did it, I spoke Spanish! No he could understand english, he just doesn't talk much!

The Mess at My House

We bought this house in 1986, when our children were still in grade school. It has been a lovely home, and I love the open floor plan, but it is deffinatly a design of the 60s. Concequently it has needed some up-dating to bring it out of that time period. Right now we are scraping the ceilings, something that has needed to be done for a long time. That look is so ugly, I wonder who ever decided it was a good idea. It's hard to believe that this house is that old, but it has been a real job bringing it up to date. Doing it slowly though, it's becoming out dated before its done. The kitchen which we re-did in the 90s is really nice, but it's outdated already.

This is the dining room ceiling, it's between the main living room and the kitchen.

This is our living room, with the fireplace all torn up to fix an uneven part. Something that we hadn't previously noticed before the painter pointed it out. The whole thing is turning into a big ordeal. This corner is going to look really different because previously it was covered with dark paneling.

We had hoped that the rock went all the way up, but didn't really think it did. That would have been a nice surprise to find behind this drywall. The drywall is just going to be repaired and painted.

Looking toward the T.V. We wanted to remove the lowered ceiling too, but that would have been a lot more work, and the main reason we had put off this whole scraping project for so long.

The Stockards are Moving

I decided to blog about this because it is what I am doing right now and what is occupying my attention. They are just way to busy and Jenny is going in so many directions she doesn't have time to sit and blog,

it isn't what she is concentrating on right now.

Anyone who knows me very well knows that I have a problem with change. Even as a very little girl, I hated the thought of moving, having new routines and making new friends. It was always very traumatic for me. Now as a mother my stress is magnified and knowing that they are grown adults doesn't help me much.

I guess I need to learn to let go and trust in their decisions and choices.

How can I worry when I see the place they are moving too? It's a beautiful home in Fountain Valley, and is only about 7 miles away. I won't be able to just walk over any more on my morning walks or pick the kids up at Eastwood with her, but hey don't they say that "change is good?" They're moving into a wonderful neighborhood, and their new ward, FV3 has at least 90 kids in their primary.

This is the entry way with the formal living room on the left side, and the formal dining room beyond that. They have a three car garage to the right. It has a lot of windows with a lot of natural sunlight.

When you walk straight in from the front door you go into the kitchen

and family room. See all of the sunlight coming in?

This is their georgous back yard, with a newly fenced pool, isn't it beautiful?

And here's the kitchen. She's going to have to get used to a little less space and less storage. The kitchen they are leaving was so big! But see, isn't this a beautiful house. They have four bedrooms up stairs and that's a change from only three. They even have 3 working fireplaces and even three bathrooms.

I went to work with Gene today

This is one of the projects that Gene is currently working on. He has been working on this one for at least 18 months if not longer. Right now it requires that he drive to Malibu at least once each week. It's a long drive but great scenery once you get to the Santa Monica Pier. Then it's PCH the rest of the way. That's a fun part of our area that we don't get to otherwise.

It has been a really challenging job because it is on the Malibu pier which is a historical landmark owned by the state of California. These buildings have been remodeled and into beautiful establishments while maintaining their historical components.

The whole project consists of 4 seperate buildings.

The first two were worked on at the same time.

One is a nice restaurant and the other is a bar.

This is the Malibu Pier Club, building #1, it's the bar.

This is just one of the pictures that I took looking back on the shore from the pier.

This Is what he's working on right now

This is going to be a surf museum on the upper level with a retail shop in the lower level.

Here's another view of the museum, it's an old structure, a historical landmark,

they are just re-working the interior.

They have had to comply with different codes and rules

because of the historical issues.

A walkway connects two buildings at the end of the pier, this is Ruby's Shake Shack.

This makes my story authentic, this is what my man does for work!

I tried to get a picture of him but he was in a meeting taking way to long, so I went and sat in the car to read my book.